Route Description

- Il Roc (4.026 m) S Wall - Parete Sud Via Vaccarone -

The "Vaccarone's Via" on the South Wall of the Gran Paradiso is a way of the past. Always has access to the imagination of the mountaineers of the Northwest of Piedmont (Canavese) accustomed to seeing from their windows the wall of the South of Gran Paradiso, punctuated by the Glacier of the Ape (= Bee) and distant from the plain to 300 meters above sea level only 30 km away.

The route requires high caution in follow it, for three main reasons:

The soil is very unstable, resulting in high risk of falling rocks.

Need to identify intuition of the via and, given the vastness of the wall, must be tackled only with conditions of visibility.

There are no obvious escape routes.

The route you should go along with freezing only at lower altitudes to to attack in the early morning (view exposure Southeast) ​​or better still with snow that cements rocks unstable).

In summary, the description of the route.
The via you attack going up the glacier Noaschetta (accessible from Valsavarenche alley through the Gran Paradiso Hill or the Orco Valley through the Walloon of Noaschetta) at the point where the avalanche is formed at the base of the couloir Ape Glacier.
In the first third of the wall go up to the left of the gully Ape Glacier overcoming the initially smooth rocks at the base of the face and then following sections of rocks tiers (II°, with a few isolated passages up to the IV°, of rock decent quality). Once reached after about 5 pitches the height at which the confluence of the strainers from the glacier the slope decreases and goes walking on the often very unstable.
The central part of the wall, next to the Ape Glacier (not visible), takes place on rocky terrain without difficulty climbing.
After reaching the last third of the wall, passing to the right of extraordinarily huge gendarmes in balance and with views of the same Glacier, the slope increases again, and climb alternating stretches of walking with short sections of climbing (grade II°, with some step III°, probably avoidable). The last shot is the most dangerous: a rocky couloir-chimney with soil completely unstable! After this groove is easy to reach the notch a few meters to the right of the Roc (4.026m).
The descent takes place on the Gran Paradiso Glacier, reachable descending from the summit of Roc, paying attention to the jump terminal.